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Chiropractic medical system : the making of a clientelle

University of British Columbia

Most sociological explanations for the success of chiropractic in attracting and maintaining its clientele have failed to consider the clinical context and the nature of the interaction between chiropractors and clients. Rather, most studies have focussed on leadership qualities, the professionalization process, and the ancillary role of chiropractic in health care to account for its success with clients. This study argues that chiropractic in British Columbia is successful in making its clientele because: (1) it is able to persuade new clients toward chiropractic health care by using strategies that are designed to minimize the political, social and economic constraints upon it; (2) chiropractors are able to negotiate successfully, the differences in the health and illness beliefs [HMs] that are held by new clients and chiropractors as well as differences in explanations [EMs] for "present" health problems; and (c) chiropractors are able to provide potential patients with "positive" experiences in chiropractic clinics, which are different, in some respects, from experiences they have had elsewhere, for example, in their relationships with allopathic medicine. This study, therefore, describes how new clients are socialized in chiropractic clinical relationships and subsequently become chiropractic patients. 20 randomly selected chiropractors and a total of 60 new clients were interviewed for their impressions of chiropractic as well as their health beliefs and explanations for "present" health problems prior to encountering each other in the clinical setting. Their interactions were observed in the twenty clinical settings, with special focus on the negotiation of explanatory models. The patients were interviewed again, regarding their experiences and impressions, following their fourth visit to the clinic after their initial encounter. 20 "regular" or long-term chiropractic patients, one from each clinic, were also interviewed regarding their experiences. Data were analyzed by comparing pre- and post-interview results and by describing the nature of clinical interactions, relationships, and negotiation of explanatory models in the context of Kleinman's ethno-medical perspective and Goffman's social ethnographic perspective on interactions in everyday life. It was found that chiropractors (1) provide potential patients with "adequate" information and the opportunity to ask questions; (2) express non-judgemental views on the health problems of clients, which provides new clients with the opportunity to fully explain their health concerns; (3) utilize persuasive interaction structures and processes to minimize both the constraints upon chiropractic and the effects of deviancy and marginality labels, and to manage the impressions of potential patients; and (4) negotiate with potential patients over explanations for the causes of their health problems, which enables the delivery of chiropractic treatment by integrating, "shifting" and modifying clients' explanatory models and, to some extent, their own. These techniques for 'making' the chiropractic clientele appear to be successful. In this study, 53 of the 60 new clients were retained beyond the fifth visit. More generally, chiropractic is now the second largest primary health care provider group in B.C., next to allopathy, and is attracting an increasing number of patients.

Text

2010-08-12

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/27298

Anthropology

University of British Columbia

Graduate